This application claims the priority of German patent document 199 19 216.2, filed Apr. 29, 1999, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The invention relates to an information system in a vehicle.
Such a system comprises a plurality of information sources which output an information signal upon the occurrence of a certain specified condition. (The information-generation condition is necessary, but not always, which is however not sufficient to cause an output of the associated information signal.) The output information signal is made available to the occupants of the vehicle (particularly the driver) for the purposes of informing them.
Depending on the type of information which is signalled, it may require the vehicle occupants or the driver to take specific actionxe2x80x94immediately, in the medium term or in the long termxe2x80x94or may merely need to be noted. Information which requires an immediate response from the driver of the vehicle may include, for example, warning information from so-called driver assistance systems which assist the driver with instantaneous vehicle-control (such as a distance control device, a blind spot monitoring unit or more generally a lane-changing aid, a bend warning device and a device for automatic lane detection) Typical information which requires reaction only in the medium-term or long-term (i.e., not before, for example, several seconds have passed) comprises not only typical operational fault messages, such as those relating to low engine oil level, a defective lamp etc., but also, for example, a telephone call signal. Typical information which does not require any particular vehicle-related action includes, for example, numerous types of operational status information relating to whether specific vehicle components are activated or deactivated at a given time, as well as music and voice information which is made available by electronic entertainment equipment. xe2x80x9cEvent informationxe2x80x9d, such as typical warning information, which is output only a short time after the relevant event has occurred, and longer lasting xe2x80x9ccontinuous informationxe2x80x9d, such as that from electronic entertainment equipment, can be differentiated depending on the typical duration of the outputting of the information.
In more modern motor vehicles, the number of individual information systems is increasing continuously, for example, to relieve and support the driver in operating the vehicle and to entertain the passengers. For this purpose, a quantity of warning information and other information is made available optically, acoustically, haptically (in a tactile fashion), by smell, as taste information, as perceptible temperature information etc. As a result, there is the danger of an information overload, entailing the risk that, for example, an important information item is not perceived by the driver because he is distracted by less important information.
The latter difficulty is countered in conventional systems only to a very limited degree by weighting or prioritizing specific messages. Thus, it is known, for example, to switch the car radio to a mute setting when a telephone call is received, or to reduce the loudspeaker volume of the radio when the navigation system issues a voice instruction. On the other hand, in conventional systems, warning messages are issued simultaneously by different types of driver assistance systems such as distance controllers, curve warning devices and automatic lane detectors, simultaneously if a particular driving situation is met. In addition, conventionally, less important information can be output simultaneously with information which requires a rapid vehicle-control reaction from the driver, and which will be referred to below as vehicle-control information. Thus, information (warning of an automatic lane detection, for example) in the form of a studded belt rattle, and additionally a telephone call tone may be issued simultaneously with the acoustic warning tone of a distance control device.
The German Patent Document DE 41 40 864 A1 describes a device for providing multifunctional diagnostic display in a motor vehicle. It includes a display device and an electronic module which controls the latter, and receives over an appropriate interface a number of fault signals which are emitted by respective fault information sources. The module controls the display device in such a way that at any time only one of the fault signals is displayed on the common display device even if at the particular time a plurality of fault information sources are outputting their respective fault signals to the module. Furthermore, a switching which can be actuated by the user so that when a plurality of fault signals are present simultaneously they can be displayed successively. For this purpose a priority of the fault signal information is prescribed.
A comparable procedure for displaying multiple information items with different display priorities on a display panel is described in the German Patent Document DE 195 07 997 A1. When several display information items which are output by various information sources are present simultaneously, an information item with a high display priority. (preferably a warning signal) is displayed in the form of at least one symbol which can be changed by an operator. When several such information items which are to be displayed with a high display priority occur simultaneously, the symbol for the first displayed information item is replaced, upon activation by the user, by a symbol which represents the number of existing information items with high display priority.
One object of the invention is to provide an information system of the type mentioned above, which protects a vehicle occupant against an information overload, even in the presence of a large number of information sources, and in particular ensures that the vehicle occupant can perceive particularly important information which relates to the control of the vehicle or which is critical for safety, without being distracted by other information.
This and other objects and advantages are achieved by the information system according to the invention, in which the conditions necessary for outputting information are specifically coordinated with one another for the various types of vehicle-control information sources (such as a distance control device, lane-changing aid, automatic lane detector, curve warning device and parking aid), in such a manner that at any time at most one of these generation conditions is met. Therefore, at most one of these vehicle-control information sources outputs an associated vehicle-control signal. This conflict-free configuration of the various vehicle-control information sources ensures that the driver is not encumbered at any time with more than one vehicle-control signal to which he must react immediately to ensure safe vehicle control (and which he should therefore perceive with a high level of reliability). This makes it possible, for example, to prevent the output of a warning signal of the automatic lane detector simultaneously with a curve warning information item if the driver is attempting to deal with the critical curve situation by cutting the corner. Also, a warning signal from the automatic lane detector can be prevented from occurring simultaneously with a distance warning if the driver wishes to deal with the critical distance situation by overtaking, without previously switching on his indicator lights.
In another embodiment of the information system according to the invention, the information which can be output by the information sources is prioritized according to various urgency levels under the control of an appropriately configured information management unit. Thus, vehicle-control information which demands a rapid reaction from the driver is associated with a primary urgency level; while other information which does not require such a rapid reaction is subordinated in one or more secondary urgency levels. The information management (which may be a central unit or may be distributed over a plurality of vehicle components) permits the less important information from the one or more secondary urgency levels to be output either with reduced intensity or not at all, as long a vehicle-control information item of the primary urgency level is being output. This ensures that the driver can perceive an important vehicle-control information item with a high degree of reliability without being distracted by other types of less important information.
In another embodiment of the invention, the information management unit perform sequential processing; that is, it outputs information of different urgency levels with descending priority. In order of decreasing priority, the urgency levels are assigned increasing response reaction times which represent typical driver reaction times to the respectively output information.
In still another embodiment of the invention, the information management unit ensures sequential processing of information within each of the one or more secondary urgency levels, provided that the respective information-generation conditions are met in parallel. Therefore, even during the processing of multiple information items which are to be output, and which are jointly associated with a secondary urgency level, the vehicle occupant is encumbered at any time by just one of these information items, which he or she can perceive with the corresponding level of reliability, without being distracted.
Yet another embodiment of the invention provides for suppression of acoustic signalling of primary information during the outputting of a primary vehicle-control information item and/or a reduction of its intensity during the outputting of other higher-priority information which does not relate to the control of the vehicle.
In another embodiment, urgency gradation of the navigation information which is output by a navigation system is provided in at least two levels. As a result, navigation information which will become relevant at an earlier time, for example relating to the route after approximately one hundred meters, can be displayed with a higher level of priority than navigation information which will only become relevant later, for example information relating to the route after several hundred meters at the earliest.
Finally, still another embodiment provides for an emergency call signal, which can, for example, be transmitted from a control centre to the vehicle and output there in accordance with a driver""s request. Such signal is output with maximum priority and with precedence over, or at least in parallel with one of the other information items.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.